This activity is designed to be used as a review following An Inventory of My Traits, Generations of Traits, and A Tree of Genetic Traits. Learning Objectives. Students will inventory their own inherited traits. Students will compare traits to determine which are most and least common in the class. Traits Bingo (pdf) - in English and Spanish. The My Catholic Life!Series is perfect for converts to Catholicism and can be used as a 24-week study of the entire Catholic faith. This series is free in electronic form and provides a complete and faithful summary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in an easy-to-read format. 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me When I was 12-years-old my father, a building contractor, fell through a stairwell shattering the bones in both of his legs. He was out of work for more than a year.

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2)11 Lessons My Father Taught Me about Leading Teams

This is not going to be the traditional type of post where I write about SEO, content, infographics, or web design, but instead, I’ll look back at what I have learned from my father about managing and leading people.

A History

My father grew up in Ridgewood, NJ. His father was a brilliant engineer (who held many patents), and his mother was a school teacher for close to 50 years. He attended Paul Smiths College in northern NY State (Paul Smiths, NY, to be exact) and during the summers worked on my grandparent’s farm where he met my mother.

Unlike many people today, my father held the same job with the same packaging company (Jefferson Smurfit, which later became Smurfit-Stone and then Stone Container) for close to 30 years. He started in the maintenance department where he fixed the large machinery, learned the ins and outs of every machine, and kept the factory running. During his 30 years at the plant, he worked his way up through each position at the company, learning the skills needed to succeed and build valuable employees. Because of his success, he was appointed GM of the Northeast Region for Stone Container. A few years back he took a new position with a competitor and has succeeded there as well. Starting as a production manager, he is now the Regional GM for the company’s seven manufacturing facilities spanning the Northeast and the Midwest United States.

11 Lessons My Father Taught Me about Leading Teams

Although there were many lessons I learned growing up and am still being taught today, below are 11 things I learned from my father about business, management, and leading a team. Some lessons, you will notice, have stories behind them, some were observations, and yet others were comments said in passing that led me to develop my own thoughts.

If You Ask Someone to Do Something, Make Sure You Can Do It, or at Least Know What It Takes

The fact that my father worked his way up through the company, learned the skills it took to be successful at each level and gained powerful insights is one of the reasons I think he is such a great manager and can relate to all levels within a company.

In my opinion, this is one of the most important aspects of leading a team and where I feel many managers and leaders fall short. I believe that if you ask someone to take on a project, you should at least have enough knowledge of how it’s done to understand the scope of the work, the pitfalls that can develop, and what it will take to be successful. This belief was the driving force that made me develop a group of test sites nine years ago to learn SEO and has since driven me to learn CSS, HTML, and most other things I might need to ask a team to do. This process of learning-by-doing (which I continue today) helps me gain the insights that are needed to evolve and become a better leader and manager.

Provide Solutions

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If you are going to point out concerns with a process or product make sure you also provide solutions to that problem. If you don’t provide solutions, you are doing nothing more than being pessimistic and negative. Make sure these are not just opinionated solutions but have numbers and even implementation costs to back them. The more you can prove value in your solutions, the more likely they are to be utilized.

Be Positive

There are many things that can go wrong for a business or that you will suggest to the upper management team that they will overlook or value. My father always said, “The key is to stay positive when faced with adversity. There is no perfect job where everyone will always do exactly what you want or agree with all your solutions. So as a leader and a manager, you must learn to roll with the punches and always look on the positive side of things and be persistent”.

Nothing Takes the Place of Persistence and Determination

This is a quote from Calvin Coolidge my father used to instill in me:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent.

This quote, which I still know by heart, is one of the driving forces that keeps me pushing forward in the face of adversity or when I am told, “It can’t be done.”

Lead by Example

When I was younger, my father would go to work on the weekends if the plant was running behind schedule, and I would always ask to tag along. He would go in early before everyone would get there for their shift, which started at 6 am (which is one of the reasons I am up each morning at 5 am starting my day).

In the main area of the plant where the large printing presses were and in the rear of the plant where the corrugator was located, the temperature would get well over 100 degrees in the summer.

I remember sitting in my father’s office (which he was rarely in) and seeing a new air conditioner sitting collecting dust. One afternoon, when he returned from the plant floor, I asked him, “Why don’t you turn on the AC unit to cool it down in your office?” He replied promptly and directly by asking, “What type of message would that send to the people working their butt (he used another word) off out on the floor in the 100-degree heat if I, as their leader, was sitting in an air-conditioned office. If they don’t have AC, neither do I.”

Your Job is to Build Valuable Employees and Teams

The old adage “There is no “I” in team” could not be more true. When transitioning from doing the work to managing or leading people who do the work, it is important to understand that what you will be judged on will change. The successes or failures of your team are a direct reflection of your success or failure as a leader. This is what makes you as a manager and leader, one that builds strong teams and helps employees evolve their skills.

Don’t Be Afraid of Conflict

My father was very specific to point out that there is a difference between causing a conflict for the sake of being difficult and causing a conflict for the sake of evolving a process or product. Let me explain.

Causing conflict for the sake of being difficult is a negative action that does not advance a product or process in a positive direction. If you plan on causing conflict to bring attention to a concern or how something might be done better, make sure you stay positive and back your conflicting views with data or information that would give insight into why you are suggesting the change.

Close the Loop

If you ask someone to do something, make sure you show them the result of what they have done or hold them responsible for not doing what they needed to do. This will not only build trust in your leadership skills and build confidence within your team members, but it will also show that each person on your team has unique value when you’re trying to achieve goals as a team.

Build Confidence

Spending time with my father at the plant, I noticed a wide range of management styles: from micro-managers and managers trying to lead by fear or bullying to those whom I respected more and were closer to the management philosophy that my father held. I can’t completely explain how he did it, but as I observed my father speaking with team members, his tone would always lend itself to building confidence and instilling in them just how valuable they were while still saying what needed to be said.

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